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Army chief: 'Public not convinced'
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The public is not convinced that British troops fighting in Afghanistan can succeed, the head of the armed forces has admitted.
Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup said that much more needed to be done to show that the mission was "do-able".
In an interview with BBC1's The Andrew Marr Show, he acknowledged that progress was "painful, slow and halting", but he said that the troops doing the fighting believed that they were gaining ground.
"I do think it is incredibly important that we do better at describing to people the success that we are having, to demonstrate that over the long term that this is do-able. I don't think we have been nearly good enough," he said.
"What we see is the downside and it is a very, very painful downside, tragic losses bereaved families back home that are having to cope with that loss, people who are injured and having to deal with a complete change in their life.
"But, out there on the ground, talk to the people who are doing it on the ground and they will tell you that they are making real progress. We have got to do much better at describing their progress. It is painful, it is slow, it is halting, but it is in the right direction."
Meanwhile, maintaining public support is "crucially important" to the success of the international military mission in Afghanistan, the senior British commander in the country has warned.
Lieutenant General Jim Dutton, the deputy commander of the international forces in Afghanistan, said people needed to understand that British troops were not being sacrificed simply for the sake of the government of President Hamid Karzai.
"British soldiers are not dying simply to provide an electoral opportunity for Afghans," he said in an interview with the BBC1 Politics Show.
Shadow foreign secretary William Hague acknowledged that the Conservatives were "very worried" about the prospect of taking over such a difficult situation in Afghanistan if they won the next general election. He warned that public support for the war could not be maintained unless there was greater military success on the ground. "It is a very difficult situation. I would be kidding if I said to you that we weren't very worried about it in the Conservative Party," he told The Andrew Marr Show.
